Philly Swag!

swag (noun): appearance, style or the way one carries him/herself. (source: urbandictionary.com)

philly swag: the swag particular to the residents of Philadelphia, USA.

In this segment of POPPYN, Saeed learns how to rock the Philly Swag with the help of well-dressed youth of Philadelphia. What's YOUR swag??

What's POPPYN : Celebration of Black Writing!

Last month, POPPYN checked out Celebration of Black Writing, hosted by Art Sanctuary. The event featured performances by poets, writers, dancers and other artists. Watch it for yourself to see what was cool, and don't forget to enjoy all the art around the city on this First Friday!

ShoutOuts: Class of 2011!

School is out, but we wanted to shout out all the youth who completed an educational milestone in 2011! We had the opportunity to cover the South Philly graduation, but we equally love all Philly grads! (If you or someone you know graduated and you want their name to be included in the final episode of POPPYN premiering in July, please send us their name!)

Breakin' It Down: The Rap Video Formula

For this Breakin' It Down, Lynsey Graeff spent many days in the Hip-Hop research laboratory (a.k.a. watching YouTube!) to discover the essential components of mainstream rap videos. Can you guess what they are?  She also hypothesizes on why the images promoted by our favorite artists are often so negative or superficial. Check out her intriguing theory!

PYPM pt. 2 : SLAM Poetry Finals

On May 7th, 12 youth from across Philadelphia competed in the Slam Poetry Finals of the Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement. Check out POPPYN's coverage of the event, behind the scenes action and interviews with some of the winning the poets who will go to San Fransisco this summer to compete in the Brave New Voices poetry slam.  For complete footage of the poets' performances, go to http://phillyyouthpoets.org/

Philly Youth Poetry Movement : Part 1 - The Workshop

Philly Youth Poetry Movement (PYPM) is an organization that empowers youth from all over Philly express themselves through writing and performance. POPPYN joined PYPM on April 30th at their weekly workshop at Science Leadership Academy to give you a taste of how the magic happens. Stay tuned for part 2 of our coverage of PYPM - the Slam Poetry Finals (coming next week!).